Sleeping is my super power - I fall asleep within two or three minutes every night. Here's how I do it.

• No caffeine ever.
• Listen to the same white noise track every night while sleeping. Your brain will recognize that the track equals time to sleep.
• Go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends.
• Don't hang out in bed. The bed is only for sleeping or sex. No phone use in bed.

Do you suffer from hot sleeping? I do. I sleep best with a big pile of blankets on me. I sleep with a weighted blanket among others. But that combined with a prediliction for hot sleeping, and I have trouble waking up in the night in a sweat.

I got so desperate, I actually almost bought one of those expensive cool water circulation systems. But then I realized a low tech solution. It takes a lot of heat to melt water. The amount of energy required to melt two liters of water is of the same magnitude as the amount of body heat given off by a human over the course of a night.

Specifically, I learned that those old timey rubber water bottles for bed use? They works just as well as cold packs as hot packs. So I got a few of those and tried it. And it's helped immensely at improving my sleep.

I have two cheap Amazon special rubber water bottles with felt covers on them. I keep them in the freezer. Each night I grab the bottles, which freeze solid through the day. I simply sleep with them under the covers, and it immensely improved my sleep. The felt covers on the bottle act as insulators to ameliorate the temperature of the bottles. You can sleep with one against you and it just feels mildly cooling. It doesn't feel like sleeping on a block of ice.

I would say this method is about 90% as effective as one of those expensive bed water cooling systems. I researched those, and they cost $500 and up. Plus they required regular maintenance and had all sorts of problems with leaks and mold. This? This system cost me about $20 and requires no more work than taking something in and out of the freezer.

If you have problems with hot sleeping, try the stupid solution first. Buy some big rubber water bottles and freeze them, or try other cold pack solutions or similar total heat capacity.

Work out. It helps reduce stress and just makes you more tired

• If you're the kind of person to keep yourself busy all day, then when you're trying to go to sleep might be the first time all day you've allowed your mind to wander! You need to find some other time in the day to allow yourself to daydream. Some tips are to not read anything while in the bathroom or turn the radio off in your car if you have a commute. Maybe even schedule some time to sit and think about things if you can.
• Only use your bed for sleep and sex. Reading, eating, browsing on your phone, watching TV, or any other activity should be done elsewhere. This way you train yourself that it's sleeptime when you're in bed.
• This is probably something that can't be done if you have a rotating shift, but go to sleep on a regular schedule. Go to sleep at the same time every day. Staying up late should a rare occurrence. Your body will become tired at the same time each day and it's much easier to fall asleep when you keep a schedule.

Cheap version: listen to the sounds of your breathing. Relax all your muscles from head to toe, then just try and isolate the sounds of air coming and going as you breathe. Focus on it long enough and hopefully you pass out.

Expensive version: https://www.moonbird.life/products/moonbird - set it for 4 seconds in, 6 seconds out and just bring it under the covers and get cozy.

Look up Progressive muscle relaxation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_muscle_relaxation

There are plenty of videos on YouTube, try a few and pick one you like.

Concentrating on breathing also helps.

People have said to relax your face and jaw. Take it a step further and relax your tongue from the roof of your mouth. It sounds silly, but I found it works for me.

That was a tip from the other site I saw years ago, and now if I'm tired and have 15 minutes I can usually grab a power nap by keeping this in mind.

Sleeping hygiene is a good point. No phone in bed.

But also try to make it cozy

Have a nice duvet cover, I like cotton. No synthetics. Change it more often.

Temperature in your bed room should be lower, open your window before going to bed.

Have good curtains. But not too dark. Whenever I have a window shutter and I close it completely, I just don’t wake up and sleep over 8-10 h.

Here are my things I do when I can’t sleep

If my feed are cold, wear socks, or cloth but don’t heat the room too much.

Try to sleep in a different room (if you can). When I am just too active I move to my sofa for a change. It really helps me.

Important question. Are you alone or is someone next to you. If your sleeping schedule or preferences don’t mix with your partners, try separate beds. Cuddling sounds cute until you cannot sleep because of a snoring person next to you. And don’t be angry when your partner prefers to be separate.

I’m gonna chime in here. My wife asks me this a lot because she too has trouble going to and staying asleep. I however have some kind of sleep superpower. I can be asleep within 2 minutes after going horizontal.

I’ve always done this: start building a scene in your head. Any scene. Action, nature, whatever. Now picture yourself there in first person. Focus on the details. Make sure the trees have leaves. The pavement has lines and cracks and texture. Imagine feeling the wind on your body. From grass to cars to sky paint as detailed a picture as you can. Begin to form a story. Walk around and interact with things, people, animals. Maybe you have a storyline. As a boy I had an action sequence I would play out every night. Cuz you know. Boys. But as I got older those turned into hikes in fun places. Or keeping company with my current crush. Or a fun road trip…You get the idea.

I promise not long after you begin you will naturally begin to drift off. At least this is what has always come naturally to me.

Good luck and sweet dreams!!!

Relax all the muscles in your face.

Don't use blue lights. That includes most lights. Use red or orange lights after dark. Blue light wakes you up. (I mean do this in addition to some of the other suggestions.)

For me I need some background noise. Something to keep my mind from wandering.

I used to have a playlist of more relaxing songs I'd listen to when trying to fall asleep. But lately I honestly just put on a youtube video I've seen before. In particular videos where it's mostly just someone talking about something. Being the computer nerd I am vwestlife of cathode ray dude are my go tos

First your bed is for sleep and sexy times and nothing else. That way your body is conditioned to go to bed whenever you lay down. Doing other actions in your bed reduces this impulse.

Second, monitor your stimulant usage which includes tea, soda or coffee. Caffeine impacts your sleep more than many realize.

Finally stop lolking at screens an hour or so before bed.

If you have the "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" like me, get a fan.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0VMUYmhGI3Oqfb0V7X5R2EXoFkrJXOIj

Scientifically composed to put you to sleep. I’ve been listening to it for a few weeks now both with headphones and with the phone on the pillow.

Minecraft Sweden on loop at low volume

I was searching for the same thing recently, and found someone who suggested choosing a category, e.g. city names, and going through the alphabet thinking of one for each letter. I find it works pretty well to sort of occupy my mind and help me drift off.

When I had trouble sleeping, I would have even more trouble sleeping because I was upset I wasn’t sleeping. Then I read somewhere that just lying there with your eyes closed and not moving was like 80-90% as effective as actual sleep.

I didn’t bother to check if that was true, but it did allow me to let go of worrying whether I was sleeping. And that allowed me to actually fall asleep.

I listen to video game retrospectives. I don't game anymore but these guys yapping on and on about morrow wind or whatever for 3 hours puts me to sleep immediately. I never played these games which is why I choose them. If I choose games I'm familiar with I'll watch it instead of zoning out.

Check out down the rabbit hole's 6 hour video about Eve for pure audio Xanax.

Imagine a place where you are most cozy and visit it every night when you try to sleep. And then maybe sound machines. And finally, deep breathing. Slowing your heart down through this will physically make your body want to go to sleep (so basically meditiation).

I do all of these in tandem, I have the sound machine going and I settle into my cozy part of my brain and then imagine my lungs as a cup filling up with water to the top while inhaling and then draining out as I exhale. The trick with this is to not stress yourself thinking about if you're doing your breathing right, just try and relax and focus.

Also melatonin. But that isn't effective for every situation.

Good luck.

My (probably not very healthy) hack is to watch YouTube. My brain focuses on one thing and all the thoughts keeping me up just stay quiet.

If you have persistent sleep problems even after applying all the advice, if you can afford it, consider taking a sleep test/study to learn what's the core issue

No.

By which I mean... I've tried many tips/tricks and none have consistently worked.

Write about the things that worry you the most.

Body Scan meditation exercise. https://youtu.be/BlWo7sqWLNk here is an example

Stop thinking about falling asleep. With your inner voice tell yourself you're going to stay up all night. Close your eyes, relax, lie still, and tell yourself that you're going to stay up all night; you'll pass out after a while.

Also invest in a high quality white noise generator or weighted blanket.

Yellow zzzquil. The regular one works too but the yellow one is better.